By Sandra B. My father grew up in a coal mining community where most of his siblings only graduated 8th grade. He was determined that his children would be educated and, as the first-born, I learned how to read and write very young. Not long after I turned 3, my father took me to the … Read more
By Cindy M. I was a non traditional student returning to school for a master’s degree. I was confronted at every turn with the integration of technology into the education system. (High school math for me meant slide rules not calculators). One of my neighbors happened to be the head of the library at the … Read more
By Robert A.
The Osterhout Free Library in my hometown of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, celebrated its 125th birthday on January 29, 2014. The Osterhout is the first public library that I ever visited and memories of my experiences at this venerable institution are rich and plentiful.
By Diane G.
I’ve loved libraries for as long as I can remember. I learned to read at a very early age (my mom still wonders if I taught myself!), and I don’t think my parents’ bank account could have kept up with how fast I went through books. I know they were thankful for the library just around the corner. New books, story-telling groups, book clubs and summer reading challenges; all are some of my favorite childhood memories.
And could I have made it through high school and college without great libraries, and librarians? It would have been a lot tougher…
By Alison W. When I was small, my mother could bribe me for weeks with the promise to take me to the “big” county library where they had all the Oz books. Libraries have always felt like home to me. When I was 13, my family had relocated to a new town, during a summer … Read more
By Scott H. I have turned my daughter on to how valuable a resource our local library can be. The ability of Hamilton County Public Libraries to move materials to our local branch in a timely fashion has saved my daughter time and money. Now for school assignments, the latest CDs, even cook books my … Read more
By Gerry G. My love the library isn’t just because I work in the industry. My great appreciation comes from when my son was middle school struggling with being bullied, he found safety in the library. The librarian befriended him. He found solace there where he could read and explore. His relationship with the librarian … Read more
By Monica G. When my daughter was little, toddler age, I would look for inexpensive but fun things to do with her. The Library always had free events going on for children of all ages each and every month. They would hand out a flyer and on each day of the month it would list … Read more
By Amy H. Some of my earliest childhood memories are of going to story hour with other kids and moms at our local library, and arguing over who would get to check out Caps for Sale that week. We always had a pile of library books in the house, stored in a wide wicker basket, … Read more
By Marla H.
When I was a child back in the 60’s, our library was in a very small house 4 blocks from my grandmother’s home. I loved going there in the summer and checking out as many books as I could then taking them to Granny’s house. I would spend lazy afternoons in her porch swing, reading about many different places and people. During the school year, I did the same thing only I used our large school library. I read nearly all of the books in the elementary library by the end of the 6th grade. Our Librarian, Miss Barker allowed my into the high school’s library but she always check to make sure it was appropriate reading for me. During my high school years, I was a volunteer in the school library for 2 years.